Black-Box

This article is about the AI construct. For Halo Wars collectibles, see Black Boxes.

Template:AI Infobox

"They don't have AIs like me. Well, nobody does, because I'm unparalleled magnificence."

— Black-Box

Black-Box (AI serial number: BBX 8995-1), commonly referred to as "BB", is a fourth-generation "smart" artificial intelligence construct built by the United Nations Space Command. He is under the supervision of the Office of Naval Intelligence and is the personal assistant to Captain Serin Osman.

Operational History

Black-Box was made from a human brain donor to be the personal AI companion for Admiral Margaret Parangosky in August 2552. He later sent a fragment of himself aboard the UNSC Glamorgan as it was sent to Onyx in wake of the planet's destruction. He then picked up massive Slipspace readings and the transponder of the late Kurt Ambrose. He was then assigned to Serin Osman and her Kilo-Five team which was tasked with creating Sangheili insurrection and locating Catherine Halsey on Onyx. He was put aboard the UNSC Port Stanley where he monitored the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers body signals, deducing that they were excited to have their own rooms. He controlled the ship through Slipspace and they emerged at New Llanelli where Black-Box scanned 'Telcam's ships. As they got back on the ship, Black-Box let his dumb AI functions run the ship while he listened to numerous comms channels at once. Mainly taking a managerial role on the extraction of Mike Spenser, next Black-Box monitored the UNSC Ariadne until the lack of help from Venezia led to the death of all aboard when it was destroyed.

Personality and traits

Possessing a male personality, Black-Box is noted as being incredibly egotistical and fully comfortable with being an entity of pure intellect, and has an innate sense of superiority over not only his Human creators, but also other AIs. Due to this, Black-Box chooses not to represent himself with a humanoid avatar, as the majority of "smart" AIs do, and instead appears as a featureless box bathed in blue light; at times, it is mentioned that he uses the brightest side of the cube to indicate which way his avatar is facing. He has been described as deeply narcissistic, and has been noted to speak in a supercilious manner. He has also been noted as having a sarcastic sense of humor.

While a "smart" AI, Black-Box possesses at his core a set of "dumb" processes, which can be separated from his higher thought processes and function as a "dumb" AI, operating independently of the main AI, but still fully within his awareness; he represents these processes as a battered and weathered version of his normal cube-shaped hologram self. Whether this is a trait unique to Black-Box is unknown. Additionally, he tries not to get too invested in humans, such as he believes Cortana did.

List of appearances

• Halo: Glasslands (First appearance)
• Halo: The Thursday War
• Halo: Mortal Dictata